John Millington Synge: A Biography

Synge (1871-1909) was born into a family of landed Protestant gentry and grew up sickly. Although his brothers were successful (one was a physician/missionary, the other a landlord to tenant farmers), Synge was aimless, and only after meeting W.B. Yeats in Paris in 1896 did his life take on direction, as Yeats spurred his interest in Irish nationalism and the supernatural. Kiely draws an almost lyrical picture of Synge: introverted, complex and frequently ill with swollen neck glands. He describes the playwright's sojourns in the Aran Islands; shows how Lady Gregory's and Yeats's rejections, with constructive criticism, of his first play propelled him to eventual success; chronicles his unrequited love for artist Cherrie Matheson and his liaison with actress Molly Allgood; traces the scandals caused by In the Shadow of the Glen, Riders to the Sea and Playboy of the Western World because of their scathing look at Irish morality; and relates his death in Dublin at 37 from Hodgkin's disease. Peopling it with characters such as Oliver St. John Gogarty (the physician who diagnosed his cancer), Abbey and Hollywood actress Sara Allgood (Molly's sister), Arthur Griffith and Jack Yeats, Kiely, a Dublin-based freelancer, has written an illuminating biography of one of Ireland's most famous unknown writers. Photos. (Dec.)